(AP)
The Post’s Steve Serby chatted with the once-perfect righty who won four World Series rings with the Yankees.
Q: Where do the ‘98 Yankees rank in history among the greatest teams?
A: They deserve to be in the argument, especially when you consider the depth — one through 25, we were as good as anybody.
Q: How does this current Yankees team compare?
A: I think this team is probably a little more of an offensive juggernaut in terms of home-run power. Our team was more balanced and we had a better bench. We had Tim Raines and Darryl Strawberry coming off the bench.
Q: Yankees-Phillies?
A: The Phillies are probably the best National League team coming out in a long time. They’re more an American league-style team with all their power. . . . I think it’s close. Mariano Rivera might be the difference.
Q: Your theory on A-Rod’s Mr. October heroics?
A: It seems like he hit rock bottom — he got divorced, he was outed as testing positive for steroids. I don’t think there was any lower to go.
Q: Does he look different at the plate to you?
A: His approach is much different. He’s much more aggressive, much more sure of himself. You don’t see him guessing as much or thinking too much.
Q: What makes Derek Jeter Derek Jeter?
A: Jeter doesn’t overthink things. He simplifies the game. He’s probably the closest teammate I’ve had to Keith Hernandez anticipating the game.
Q: C.C. Sabathia?
A: He’s more of a complete pitcher than any of us thought he was.
Q: Your perfect game against the Expos on July 18, 1999?
A: The further removed I get, the more I appreciate it. After I threw the perfect game, I struggled down the stretch and was never able to take the time to put it in perspective. People remember me for that moment. I’m thankful for that moment.
Q: Joe Girardi?
A: We always thought he’d be a manager. He and Don Zimmer and Joe Torre were always very close. You could see that coming.
Q: Mariano Rivera?
A: The coolest customer I’ve ever been around. Never Nervous Pervis (chuckles).
Q: Your reaction when Torre replaced Buck Showalter?
A: I was a little bit shocked Showalter was fired. I thought he did an excellent job of building that franchise. I knew Torre would be good with the veteran players.
Q: Best George Steinbrenner story?
A: During the (2000) Subway Series when the middle three games were at Shea. He rearranged the furniture in the visiting clubhouse and brought in the navy blue Yankee chairs we had in front of our lockers. He also brought in navy blue couches and proceeded to sit there for
12 hours a day. He made the visiting clubhouse at Shea Stadium into his own personal living room. Pretty remarkable scene.
Q: Most ticked off you ever saw him?
A: Probably after we lost (to the Indians) in ’97, when Sandy Alomar hit the home run against Mariano Rivera.
Q: Don Mattingly?
A: Everything said about him — what a good player, teammate and person he was — he did not disappoint me when I was his teammate in ’95.
Q: Most superstitious teammate?
A: Wade Boggs.
Q: Your mentality on the mound?
A: Never give in. . . . It’s better to walk in a run with the bases loaded than give up a grand slam.
Q: Starting Game 3 of the ’96 Series in Atlanta down 0-2 to the Braves?
A: I walked in a run with the bases loaded for the second postseason in a row with the Yankees. It was a high-wire act by me — gutsy but not pretty.
Q: Getting Mike Piazza out in relief in the fifth inning of Game 4 of the Subway Series?
A: The last pitch I threw as a Yankee.
Q: How scary was the aneurysm in your shoulder?
A: I didn’t understand the word. I thought it was life-threatening at first.
Q: The young Doc Gooden and the young Darryl Strawberry?
A: The two most talented young players I’ve ever seen.
Q: Keith Hernandez?
A: The most intense competitor I’ve ever been around. He anticipated the flow of the game better than anybody I’ve been around.
Q: Strawberry’s Photo Day fight with Hernandez?
A: Probably the most ill-timed fight in the history of baseball. There were 1,000 cameras going off at once. You couldn’t have picked a worse time for a public brawl among teammates.
Q: Ron Darling?
A: He was my mentor. Even though I was a rookie, he took me under his wing and showed me the ropes. There’s a difference between being paid to play and being a professional.
Q: Davey Johnson?
A: An old-school manager who did not get enough credit for developing young pitchers; taught us to finish what we started.
Q: The ’88 playoffs against the Dodgers and your bylined column (ripping pitchers Jay Howell and Orel Hershiser) before your Game 2 shellacking.
A: Still one of the all-time low moments in my career.
Q: Finishing your career with the Red Sox?
A: Extremely difficult. I’m thankful they gave me a job when the Yankees didn’t re-sign me. I was kinda dangling on the free-agent market. I was thankful I got to see the other side of a great rivalry.
Q: Being drafted in the third round by your hometown Kansas City Royals.
A: Surreal. I thought I might get drafted, certainly not that high and certainly not by the Royals.
Q: Arguing a safe call on a Mark Lemke grounder with first-base umpire Charlie Williams in Atlanta.
A: Unbelievably embarrassing. Completely humiliating. Especially, as I kept arguing with Charlie, he said: “While you’re arguing with me, the second run just scored.”
Q: Minor league low point?
A: I blew out my knee in a collision at home plate. I tore my ACL ligament back when they didn’t know how to do that surgery very well. I didn’t know if I could come back from it.
Q: Being traded to the Mets in spring training 1987?
A: Shocked. I thought he (then-Royals GM John Schuerholz) was joking.
Q: Boyhood idol?
A: George Brett?
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Babe Ruth; Ben Hogan; Ted Williams.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “The Departed.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Harvey Keitel.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Susan Sarandon.
Q: Favorite entertainer?
A: Green Day.
Q: Favorite NYC restaurant?
A: Rao’s.
Q: Your legacy?
A: Just a guy who laid it on the line. I pitched every start like it was my last.